Cristina Juc

For the 6th year in a row, Startup Weekend Cluj has become a place where young people meet to exchange ideas, learn about entrepreneurship and build their own business. A weekend filled with energy, discussions & feedback sessions with mentors has ended with the final presentations and winners of the 2017 edition. Out of the 97 participants, 33 have pitched their ideas and, after the voting, 15 ideas were selected to get to the next stage.

Startups are changing the world we live in. This was clearly the message of last year’s tech media, both the Romanian and the international one. But do we know what these so-called startups we hear about every single day really are?
Although there are lots of definitions for a startup, some of them very technical, others rather bohemian, there isn’t one that’s unanimously accepted. About 2 years ago, Alex Wilhelm made up a ”50, 100, 500” rule.

It happened so quickly and it was so intense that we barely had the time to experience it properly. The Startup Weekend Cluj - Smart Cities event took place in early April this year and it was fantastic! Hundreds of mails and messages, even more Skype and phone calls, 11 awesome people channeling their efforts towards a common goal – all of these have made it possible. And, of course, we must not forget all our sponsors & partners.

The product you developed is not selling, even though you have already tried the 100s growth-hacking tips and tricks list. Even Neil Patel’s guide only brings you more confusion. It’s time for you to face what the real problem is. Instead of learning, experimenting and sometimes failing, you are spending time iterating on meaningless aspects and side features of your product. Meanwhile, someone, somewhere is working way more efficiently on a product similar to or better than yours.

After a few meetings, a lot of written mails, and even more phone calls - it finally happened and it was over in just 3 days, but it was definitely worth it. In the last weekend of last month, the 24-26 of April, Exclusiv Catering has hosted our 2015 Startup Weekend Cluj event.
The three working days have started with the presentations of two speakers, Philipp Kandal and Salim Virani, after that, our host Adrian Pica has shared some of his experience at these kind of events. In the same evening, there was the pitching session. 30 ideas were pitched, 12 of them were selected by participants through maximum votes as being the most interesting.

Startup Weekend is a global movement that brings together people with ideas,
aspirations and different backgrounds, in order to help each other achieve a
common goal. It helps people develop confidence, since they can see their ideas
come to life almost in a blink of an eye. And it also provides them with
mentorship from real life entrepreneurs that have succeeded already, and are
there to help.
This year Startup Weekend Cluj will have its 4th edition which will take place
on 24-26 of April. We could tell you a number of reasons why it's such a great
and inspiring place to start your startup, but we decided instead to ask some of
the winners of the last editions to tell you themselves. In order to do that, we
came up with a few questions for them. Here are some of their answers:

For those who are not yet familiar with this concept, Startup Weekend (SW) is an
event that brings together entrepreneurs, graphic designers, developers,
marketers and other bright people with smart business ideas. But for those who
already know what it’s about, we invite you to our next edition, which will take
place during the weekend 24th – 26th of April 2015.
Startup Weekend is a concept that was created in USA and exported all around the
world. Its main goals are education and personal development. The organizers
provide you the context, resources, mentors, and most important, the opportunity
to meet new people that are also eager to create a startup.